The Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, has filed libel suits against a former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, Chidi Odinkalu; a former Aide to former President Goodluck Jonathan on New Media, Reno Omokri; among others, on Thursday.
Others named as Defendants in the suits are Thisday newspaper, Daniel Elombah, Elombah Communications, Barrister Joseph Onu, and Auta Nyada.
The Kaduna State Governor, filed the 3 different suits before the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, through his Lawyer, Abdulhakeem Mustapha, SAN.
He sought a total of N1.5 billion as damages in the three suits.
Governor El-Rufai claimed in one of the suits, that statements contained in a certain publication titled: ‘El-Rufai’s email saying Southern women youth corpers are seen as whores’, by Omokri, which was published by Thisday Newspaper, on Sunday, June 14, 2020, was injurious to his reputation.
He also noted that the publication was “malicious, unwarranted, and defamatory” against him.
He sought N500 million compensation, and an apology to be published in the newspaper, in the suit.
In the suit in which he sued Odinkalu as the Defendant, Daniel Elombah, and Elombah Communications, the Governor said that a publication titled: ‘Litany of 25 critics who have suffered at El-Rufai’s hands, compiled by Chidi Odinkalu’, which was published on Elombah.com on Wednesday, September 2, 2020, was “malicious, unlawful, and without any justification”.
He also sought N500 million damages and an apology.
Another suit filed by the Governor, relates to a petition which led to his disinvitation to the Nigerian Bar Association’s, NBA, Annual General Conference, earlier in the year.
The Kaduna State Governor, stated in the suit that a letter written by Jospen Onu, and dated August 19, 2020, titled: ‘Request to withdraw the offer of platform at the 2020 Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Mallam Nasir El-Rufai’, addressed to Prof. Koyinsola Ajayi, SAN, in his capacity as the Chairman, Technical Committee on Conference Planning of the NBA, and copied to Dr. Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, as Chairman, Board of Trustee, BoT, of the NBA, and Mr. Olumide Akpata, the then President-elect of the NBA, and published in the Media, was “defamatory, and greatly injurious to the reputation of the Claimant”.
He also sought an apology, and N500 million in damages.
More news later…
